The methods in which consumers purchase or obtains items continually evolves. This may be seen in the area of procuring media content for private use. For example, a self-service media content dispensing device, such as a kiosk, offers users the advantages of a self-service device where the user operates and completes the transaction. For the service provider of the dispensing device, advantages are realized by operating a device with a small footprint and avoiding the overhead of a retail establishment. The self-service dispensing device is preferably a touch-based computing dispensing device, such as a self-service kiosk that a user may operate through a graphical user interface on a display, and performing selections by touching a particular icon or symbol on the screen. Other methods of selection may be employed such as depressing a particular button in proximity to the display or through the use of a mouse.
The self-service dispensing devices may dispense any variety of items for consumer use including, but not limited to, candies, electronics, media content such as DVDs or CDs, cell phones, food items, beauty items, and sodas. These items are stored within the self-service dispensing device. Components within the self-service dispensing mechanism are designed to move items from the location where the items are stored to a location the items are dispensed. The items may be stored in storage bins or any other area of the dispensing device that may store the item. The dispensing location may be, for example, a slot or port through which an item may be placed. As these self-service dispensing devices become more popular, methods and techniques to improve the consumer experience with these self-service devices becomes more important.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.